One Horse Towns

Life on TN

Monday, June 12, 2017

At long last! All the remaining betabels destroyed, the Bear captured, and massive property damage done to the NGIS! And there’s only one major loose end staring us directly in the face…

[Torgath continues to be interrogated by Ed.]Torgath: “Hypothetically, let’s say your organization had been infiltrated by Earth people and I could prove it…”

[Ed is replaced by a new interrogator. While he does not name himself, we know out of character that this is Major Zadine Bartok, one of the two remaining betabels.]Torgath: “Are you Big Red?”
Zadine Bartok: “I am not. Though I am curious as to why you would ask this.”

[Bartok lays out his plan of interrogation.]Zadine Bartok: “The two most powerful warriors, my friend, are patience and time.”
Torgath: “That sounds less painful than the shocky stick.”

[Torgath continues to be his usual baffling self during the interrogation.]Zadine Bartok: “Dostoyevsky says the most clever man is the one who calls himself a fool at least once a month. I think you are a very clever man.”
Zac: *laughs uproariously*

[A follow-up to the previous quote.]Torgath: “I think you just insulted me! You said I’m a fool!”
Zadine Bartok: “…I’m going to start cutting off your fingers now.”

[Torgath is not very happy with the whole ‘cutting fingers off’ plan.]Torgath: “So you’re going to use time and patience to remove my hope?”
Zadine Bartok: “I was going to use time and patience. Now I will use…”
Torgath: “My fingers?”
Zadine Bartok: “Yes.”

[Meanwhile, Fennec has discovered that the Bear, aka Col. Vitushkin, is on base today and meeting with an “independent security specialist”, who might or might not be Mark Kim, the other remaining betabel.]Julie: “If Kim, Bartok, and the Bear are all here, we nuke the building from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Brock: “I had considered it.”

[The rest of the team has made it as far as the armory when our planned simulation – a gas leak – goes off. The guard in front of the armory puts on a gas mask and directs the rest of us on where to get more. Lukas sends Lyta and Fennec to make a show of getting them.]Lukas: “Corporal Mattis, if I should die of gas poisoning before the gas masks get here, I am putting in the record that you obstructed me getting one.”

[Lukas and Dawn take out the guard and enter the armory. Lyta and Fennec come back to discover none other than Zadine Bartok.]Brock: “For the record, I’m not altogether dissatisfied that there’s an armored door between me and Bartok. Good luck.”

[Lyta and Fennec have a good first round against Bartok, but he’s not down yet.]Fennec: “Damn! Shoulda loaded this thing full of silver bullets!”

[Bartok has run away from the fight after taking quite a bit of damage. Dawn rescues Torgath and everyone reconvenes outside the infirmary, where Bartok is hiding.]Zac: “I give Torgath a silent thumbs-up.”
Brock: “Because you still have thumbs. And so does he.”

[We blow off the hinges and lock to the door.]Fennec: “Who wants to do the door-kicking?”
Lyta: “Oh, that’s my job, isn’t it?”

[After some effort, we manage to get into the room and bring down Bartok.]Georges the GM: “We needed Bartok alive to lead us to the Bear. But now we know the Bear is here, so…”

[Lukas kills Bartok and cuts off his head. Sadly, more hostiles have descended to our floor. We make a hasty tactical plan.]Brock: “Someone has to hold the armory. We don’t want them having the kind of fun we’re having.”

[We know there is another betabel in the building, Mark Kim. We don’t have a tremendous amount of betabel rounds left, but we have managed to acquire… other things from the armory.]Zac: “If we’re hitting Kim with a chain gun…”
Brock: “It’s not a bad start.”

[We clear out the floor but there are more hostiles above us on the stairway. Lukas is holding position, doing a bit of harrowing and intimidation with a flamethrower. He moves back a bit to avoid the falling flames.]Georges the GM: “How far do you move back?”
Brock: “Far enough that any grenades…”
Georges the GM: “That’s what happens next, yes.”

[Meanwhile, the rest of the PCs are raising the Q-lab, aka the advanced technologies R&D lab.]Brock: “Anything that’s ‘this’ size or smaller should be shoved into the duffel bags.”
Zac: “The duffel bags are full of flamethrowers.”

[There is only one stairway out of the basement, and it is full of people who want to shoot us.]Gabrielle Summers: “We could certainly use a distraction right now.”
Lukas: “Are we at that point yet?”
Gabrielle Summers: “Our way out is… problematic.”

[We consider alternate means of egress.]Brock: “How much would it take to cut through the ceiling?”
Georges the GM: “More explosives than in the armory, but you do have a lab with…”
Zac: (excited) “A laser beam?!”

[Lukas and Fennec manage to put together some explosives from the chemicals in the lab. The plan is to blow the ceiling right below the cafeteria, where Markus’ team has left us our explosive bottles.]Brock: “This corner.”
Zac: “Why that corner?”
Brock: “Because that’s the furthest away from where I’d put four highly explosive bottles.”

[The bad news is our explosive bottles have been taken by the enemy. They send one down on a drone and it explodes prematurely, sparing the PCs but setting off the explosive Lukas had already set on a load-bearing wall beneath the cafeteria. Massive explosions ensue and the ceiling collapses.]Zac: “Well, there goes our element of surprise.”

[Zac reflects on the situation.]Zac: “I’m just pissed off they did what we were gonna do before we did it.”

[We climb up through the enclosed trunk line ducts to the second floor communications room, which we blast our way into.]Georges the GM: “We’ll take a break before we tackle this fight.”
Brock: “It’s a whole new floor!”
Julie: “One that hasn’t been damaged by us yet!”
Brock: “It has now!”

[We emerge into the comms room to discover it is full of armed adversaries.]Zac: “Are we still with grenades? Is that our strategy?”
Brock: “When there are 13 guys in a room with you, grenades.”

[Yet more fighting and some comms warfare has us follow Mark Kim and the Bear to the roof. Lukas, Lyta, and Torgath emerge from the stairwell but while we can see a few hostiles, none of them are the ones we’re looking for.]Julie: “I’m gonna grab the doorframe and hop up onto the roof of this stairwell, then flatten myself down so no one can shoot at me.”
Georges the GM: “You land on Mark Kim.”
Zac: “Now you get to live out your dream of engaging in hand-to-hand with a betabel.”
Julie: “This is a horrible idea!”

[The Bear, aka Col. Vitushkin, is on the far side of the roof from us as we are pinned down near the stairwell.]Col. Vitushkin: “Lukas, my friend, is that you wearing Bartok’s dataglove?”
Zac: (as Lukas) “I have something else of his too!”

[More of the same.]Col. Vitushkin: “I’m always interested in bargains with Lassanders. The last one served me very well.”

[We know that Ti is inbound on our stealth hopper. We just need to stall long enough for him to get here.]Col. Vitushkin: “Your father had me save you. He had me prioritize your lives over the other child.”
Julie: “The one who’s about to shoot a missile at him. Surprise!”

[More of the same.]Georges the GM: “He’s monologuing because that’s what evil people do.”

[Mark Kim has a gun to Torgath’s head. Gabrielle comes up behind him.]Mark Kimn: “Tell the NGIS traitor not to get too close, or I will give your romance a tragic ending.”

[Torgath is very wounded. Kim has him advance towards where Lyta and Lukas have taken the Bear into custody.]Ariel: “Maybe I’ll crawl instead of walk.”
Brock: “You should crawl. And as you’re crawling, you should investigate what’s on your tac vest that could be useful.”

[A sign that the standoff is about to come to a head.]Gabrielle Summers: “Todd, you’re going to be fine.”
Torgath: “Of course!”
Zac: “Oh, I hate it when they talk that way.”

[Through the whole combat, Fennec had been doing comm warfare checks to allow Ti to triangulate Kim’s position and shoot him with a missile. Sadly, Dawn shoots him first.]Zac: “My efforts have all been wasted. I blame Gabrielle.”

[The standoff resolves itself thusly: Kim has been taken out by the combination of betalbel rounds from Gabrielle and a chain gun from Lukas, Lyta has taken custody of the Bear and rendered him unconscious, but Gabrielle, Lukas, and Torgath are all heavily injured,.]Georges the GM: “Torgath and Dawn look at each other as their blood pools together.”
Brock: “In a heart shape.”

[More of the same.]Georges the GM: “Torgath, do you do anything other than bleed this round?”

[At long last, we manage to flee on our stealth hopper as the building collapses behind us in yet more massive explosions.]Georges the GM: “Congratulations on a slaughter well done.”

[Lukas needs long-term hospitalization. But even that has not made him forget his priorities.]Brock: “Don’t let them take my head.”

[In the aftermath of the combat, Nicosa Renault’s agent Tatsugoro contacts Torgath to find out the status of the Bear.]Georges the GM: “Who do you tell about this conversation?”
Zac: “It’s Torgath, so probably everyone.”

[Also in the aftermath of the combat, as Lukas is recuperating…]Georges the GM: “Minnie shows up.”
Brock: “Okay. I’m ready for this. There’s a bar fridge in my room.”

[Lukas and Minnie did not leave off on the best of terms.]Lukas: “Are you feeling celebratory? I got you a present.”
Minnie Bartok: “All your limbs attached? It’s nothing gross?”
Lukas: “…Drink first.”

[In the bar fridge is Zadine Bartok’s head.]Minnie Bartok: *stares at the head a long time, then closes it with her foot and kisses Lukas on the cheek* “I guess this makes me a widow. You know where to reach me.”

[Lukas has yet more awkward conversations. This time with Dawn.]Lukas: “So…”
Lukas and Gabrielle Summers: *long silence*

[Lukas extends an olive branch towards Gabrielle, suggesting they might work together in the future.]Lukas: “Well, we’re gonna be a family, right?”
Gabrielle Summers: “And since I have no more parents for you to murder, I have nothing to lose.”
Brock: “I have a head in a fridge – I can’t judge her callous sense of humor.”

[Georges the GM wraps up the session.]Georges the GM: “First of all, congratulations on wiping out… everyone.”

[We are not totally finished with the campaign. We still need to find and destroy the Jezebel program before they are released into the world.]Brock: “The underwater base is mobile?”
Zac: “You want it, don’t you?”
Brock: “Well, if no one else is gonna have it…”

[Attacking the Jezebel base will be… difficult.]Ariel: “Wait, it’s guaranteed suicide, or we get to roll for it?”

[Zac sums up the choice before us.]Zac: “So we can retire these characters or we can bring them back just to kill them in a suicide mission.”
Georges the GM: “To save the world.”